Minnesota Senator Is Among 8 Dead in Crash

By DAVID STOUT

Published: October 25, 2002

WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 - Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota was killed today when his campaign plane crashed approaching a small airport in a wooded region in the northern part of his state.

Mr. Wellstone, 58, a Democrat who was one of the Senate's most liberal members and was in a fierce fight to win re-election to a third term, perished along with seven other people when the chartered King Air A100 went down near Eveleth around 10:20 a.m. Central Time, the Federal Aviation Administration reported.

National Weather Service reports at the time indicated light rain and snow were sweeping over the area and visibility was diminishing. People familiar with the last moments of the flight said radio contact had been normal and that the plane had been cleared to make an instrument approach to Eveleth-Virginia Municipal Airport.

Also killed were Mr. Wellstone's wife, Sheila; one of the couple's three children, Marcia; members of the Senate's staff and the twin-engine aircraft's two pilots, officials said.

Control of the Senate is such an overriding political consideration that speculation on what Mr. Wellstone's death might mean on Capitol Hill began almost immediately, even as lawmakers of both parties, liberal and conservative alike, were feeling the shock of personal grief.

The senator was on his way to Eveleth for the funeral of the father of a state lawmaker, The Associated Press reported. He was also to have had a debate this evening with his opponent, Norm Coleman, a former mayor of St. Paul, whom the White House had recruited to try to unseat Mr. Wellstone. The race was widely regarded as one of the most competitive Senate contests, and thus of paramount importance in determining which party will control the Senate, now in the hands of the Democrats, after Nov. 5.

Attorney General Mike Hatch said Gov. Jesse Ventura, an independent who is not seeking re-election, does not have to name an interim senator to complete the senator's term, which expires in January. Mr. Hatch said the Democrats have to appoint a new candidate no later than four days before the election, which is Nov. 5. ``It is to the Democrats' advantage to nominate as soon as possible,'' Mr. Hatch said.

The prospect of war in Iraq has been dominating the debate in the neck-and-neck battle in Minnesota. Mr. Wellstone had opposed the resolution giving President Bush the authority to invade Iraq. In fact, he was engaged in a partly light-hearted competition with another liberal Democrat, Senator Russell Feingold of Wisconsin, to see who would be the most frequent dissenter in 99-to-1 Senate votes.

Mr. Wellstone's opponent, Mr. Coleman, a former Democrat who became a moderate Republican, had been given a good chance at toppling the senator. A Coleman spokesman, Ben Whitney, told The Associated Press: ``Our prayers are with the Wellstone family. That's all I'm going to say.''

Minnesota state government officials were said to be meeting this afternoon to clarify arrangements for the Nov. 5 election, in view of Mr. Wellstone's death.

Democrats have controlled the Senate by a single vote since the spring of 2001, when Senator James M. Jeffords of Vermont defected from the Republican Party.

Today's events revived memories of 2000, when Gov. Mel Carnahan of Missouri was killed in a plane crash three weeks before Election Day while running for the Senate. His name remained on the ballot, and he got more votes that the Republican incumbent, John Ashcroft. Mr. Carnahan's widow, Jean, was appointed to serve in her husband's place. Today, Mrs. Carnahan called the death of Mr. Wellstone ``heartbreaking news.''

The American flag over the White House was lowered to half-staff this afternoon, just minutes after federal officials confirmed Mr. Wellstone's death.

President Bush, speaking in Crawford, Tex., said, ``Paul Wellstone was a man of deep convictions, a plain-spoken fellow, who did his best for his state and for his country. May the Good Lord bless those who grieve.''

Two Republican senators who are far to the right of Mr. Wellstone, Pete V. Domenici of New Mexico and Sam Brownback of Kansas, expressed sadness over their colleague's death. Mr. Domenici was barely into a television interview when he choked up and had to stop. Mr. Brownback said Mr. Wellstone was a man who ``cared deeply'' about everyone, regardless of ideology.

Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, called Mr. Wellstone ``a good man'' as well as a good Senator.

Mr. Wellstone was a former professor of political science at Carleton College in Minnesota and was a Minnesota chairman of the Rev. Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign in 1984.

Mr. Wellstone won his first election to the Senate, in 1990, with 50.4 percent of the vote, in an upset of Senator Rudy Boschwitz. In 1996, he was re-elected with 50.3 percent of the vote, again defeating Mr. Boschwitz, who occasionally derided his rival as ``Senator Welfare.''

Mr. Wellstone's campaign for a third term was shadowed, at least in the minds of people with long memories, about his earlier promise to step down after two terms.

Mr. Wellstone was considered perhaps even more liberal than Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, who was in Minnesota earlier today to campaign for Mr. Wellstone and was on his way back to Washington on a commercial flight when Mr. Wellstone's plane crashed about 175 miles north of Minneapolis.

Shortly after landing in Washington, a somber Mr. Kennedy said Mr. Wellstone would always be remembered because of his ``passion for the good things in people.''

Born July 21, 1944, in Washington, Paul Wellstone was an outstanding high school wrestler, winning an athletic scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was an Atlantic Coast Conference champion and graduated in three years with a degree in political science.

For his doctoral dissertation, Mr. Wellstone wrote on ``Black Militants in the Ghetto: Why They Believe in Violence.''

The first three Democrats elected to the Senate from Minnesota, Hubert H. Humphrey, Eugene J. McCarthy and Walter F. Mondale, all made serious runs for President. Mr. Wellstone once considered running for president but announced in 1999 that he would not because his bad back could not stand the rigors of a coast-to-coast campaign.

But some analysts, including some who liked and admired Mr. Wellstone, thought Mr. Wellstone just too quirky to be a serious presidential candidate.

``There are people who will not vote for Paul Wellstone because he's too nutty left,'' Lilly Goren, chairwoman of the political science department at the College of St. Catherine in Minnesota, said recently. ``At the same time, there are people who will vote for Paul Wellstone even if they don't agree with his politics because he's willing to speak out on stuff.''